The Jewish community has warned that framing the war between Israel and Hamas as a simplistic, all-or-nothing fight puts Jews at risk here in Colorado. We’ve urged community leaders and the media to move beyond familiar “oppressor vs. oppressed” narratives and recognize the war as a deeply complex tragedy in which many are suffering and culpable.
We’ve asked the world to believe us when we say that chants and signs targeting Zionists are not just antisemitic — they’re dangerous.
Ignoring these concerns is a choice.
So now we find ourselves here. It is horrifying, but not surprising, that a vigilante lit 12 people in Boulder on fire because “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.”
When I attended the same gathering in August 2024 after Hamas murdered six hostages, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a person waving a sign that said “arm Hamas” harassed our group.
Letting this kind of language become part of everyday protests and advocacy is a choice.
Antisemites are using this war to push their agendas, and in a political and media culture incapable of nuance, too many people — especially those trying to channel their grief into action — get swept up in it. That’s by design. Dehumanizing others and decontextualizing conflict makes it easier to justify violence against entire groups, even while professing to stand for human dignity and decency.
This is happening right here in Colorado. As the senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), a coalition representing more than 40 local Jewish organizations, I repeatedly see efforts to other Jews and willfully distort the conflict with Hamas.
I see it:
Every time a press statement erases the antisemitic nature of the Boulder attack;
Every time someone tries to downplay obvious examples of antisemitism by appealing to esoteric distinctions between Zionists and Jews;
Every time elected officials or campus leaders let anti-Israel activists overrun their facilities and intimidate Jews;
Every time a political party elevates someone with a history of antisemitism;
Every time politicians use Jews or Palestinians as political props for their own goals;
Every time Jews or Israelis are falsely described as genocidal;
Every time media outlets leave out Jewish voices in stories about the war or its aftermath,
And every time protestors, activists, and community leaders excuse violence against Jews.
But buying into corrosive “us or them” frameworks is not a choice Coloradans must make.
The Jewish community rejects this choice despite being the targets of extreme rhetoric and violence. We know that political violence and the hateful, reductive rhetoric that fuels it threaten not just American Jews but all Americans. We recognize that our survival is bound up in the survival of others.
Choose to stand with us. Not through words, but through action.
Over the next few months, the JCRC will work with our interfaith and civic partners to reverse the rising tide of violent rhetoric and actions in Colorado. This effort will be bold, public, and inclusive. We will demand real action and change. We will hold space for complexity and compassion. And we are asking you to join us — to make room for our identities and work alongside us before more Jews and Coloradans are hurt.
One of the most sacred commandments in Judaism is to “choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Join us in choosing life in times of darkness.
We must all look in the mirror, ask how this keeps happening, and choose to build a better world. So that the Jewish community and all our neighbors may live.
Brandon Rattiner is the Senior Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), a program of JEWISHcolorado. The JCRC is a nonpartisan body that brings Jewish Coloradans together to advance our shared values and policy priorities.
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